Microsoft menaced by open source

The company complained in its annual report that it was facing increasing
pressure from open source companies. It claims they are stealing its ideas and
benefiting from its intellectual property.

"A number of commercial firms compete with us using an open source business
model by modifying and then distributing open source software to end users at
nominal cost and earning revenue on complementary services and products," the
Volish
statement proclaimed.

"These firms do not bear the full costs of research and development for the
software. Some of these firms may build upon Microsoft ideas that we provide to
them free or at low royalties in connection with our interoperability
initiatives."

And the Vole did further bleat: "To the extent open source software gains
increasing market acceptance, our sales, revenue and operating margins may
decline."

It claimed the the open source community is harming the Volish bottom line by
copying all its applications and selling them at a lower price.